David J. Hess

David  is a professor in the Sociology Department at Vanderbilt University, where he is the associate director of the Institute for Energy and Environment and director of the Program on Environmental and Sustainability Studies. He has recently finished a three-volume series with MIT Press on the role of social movements in the opening of political opportunities sustainability policies in the United States. The first volume, Alternative Pathways in Science and Industry,  studies industry-oriented social movements, both in favor of alternatives and against aspects of existing regimes, and the historical tendency for them to achieve only partial success; the second, Localist Movements in a Global Economy, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of small businesses and community enterprises in developing more sustainable and fair regional economies; and the third, Good Green Jobs in a Global Economy, develops a political sociological approach to green-energy transition policy by examining the role of actors such as the fossil fuel industry, Tea Party movement, and labor-environmental coalitions.